Astronomy - 06.2019

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distorted the views of celestial objects. So,
his next endeavor was to build a refractor,
and he has been building them ever since.
For many years, Maris’ telescope mak-
ing took a back seat to his main job as a
park ranger in California. It was only
toward the end of this career that he began
teaching astronomy to the general public
and decided to make a few more refractors,
one for himself and a few for his friends.
The telescopes worked so well that Maris
found himself with more requests for them,

so he set up a shop in his garage. In all, he

made about 25 of these 3.2-inch scopes with

achromatic doublet lenses. But demand just

kept increasing. Maris was working full time

as a ranger, and the telescopes were taking

up whatever spare time that remained.

In his 50s, Maris retired from the park

service and decided it was time to open a

real shop. He chose a commercial building

in Auburn, California, to begin this next

chapter of his life. During the next 20 years,

this small space expanded to an ultra-

modern 9,000-square-foot facility that

produces optics for space exploration, the

military, and astronomers all over the world.

Products galore

Stellarvue’s products for astronomers

include 3.2-inch, 4-inch, 5.2-inch, and

6-inch refractors. All incorporate trip-

let apochromatic lenses, and can be

used either photographically or visually.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Alex Mayer uses
the laser interferometer to check the quality
of the curves ground into the lenses.

Stellarvue’s president and owner, Vic Maris,
programs settings into the company’s Haas
VF3 CNC machine, to create the proper curves
on lenses.

The company’s optical fabrication lab is
a wonder to behold.